Chapter 38
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: 5. There's a Body Disposal Site in the Police Station's Basement.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To summarize—
We needed to find the telephone at the police station to find out what was happening in the capital. And to get to the police station, we had to open the gates of Happy House and go outside.
The problem was that the area around Happy House was teeming with monsters, making it seem incredibly difficult to break through.
It seemed the process of knocking Ethan out in town and kidnapping him back to Happy House had been a bit too rowdy. Thanks to that, we’d drawn far too much attention, and now all the monsters were gathering here.
Even as time passed, the number of monsters showed no sign of decreasing. We needed something else to divert their attention.
‘I’ll have to use the bells.’
The first method to try was the bells.
I stood by the wall next to the first-floor banquet hall. That was where I had set up the rope connected to the bells in the forest.
The rope was tied securely to a small, protruding rod. As I skillfully untied the knot, Ethan spoke from behind me.
“When on earth did you…?”
He wore an expression of someone who couldn't comprehend what I planned to do with a rope. He then looked at the rope extending over the wall. Suddenly, as if something had occurred to him, he looked at me in surprise.
It was quite amusing to watch the series of changes in his expression as I unwound the rope from the rod.
“Don’t tell me, all those bells you took out with you back then were for…?”
Without resolving his curiosity, I brought up something else.
“I’m going to ring the bells to draw the monsters’ attention toward the forest. Sir Ethan, please head to the watchtower and monitor their movements.”
Ethan looked at me with a skeptical face.
Even to me, it was a request with many suspicious elements. I knew that.
But I knew Ethan better than he thought. He disliked uncertainty. On top of that, he was very curious. So, he would go up to the watchtower, if only to find out what I was trying to do.
As expected, Ethan thought for a moment in silence before finally nodding.
“Very well. It’s better to try something than nothing at all.”
As I’d instructed, he climbed onto the roof and looked down at me from the watchtower. I exchanged a glance with him, then grabbed the rope I’d set up on the wall.
After taking a deep breath, I pulled the rope.
Jingle, jingle, jingle—
Jingle, jingle—
The sound of bells echoed through the forest.
Krawwwk! Thump-thump-thump-
I could hear the sounds of monsters moving toward the forest. The animalistic cries that had been circling the mansion gradually grew distant.
Did it work?
I kept shaking the rope.
However, the problem was that the number of monsters was significantly greater than the number of bells I had prepared.
They seemed to wander the forest for a short while before gathering around the mansion once again.
‘Dammit! Why the hell…!’
I wouldn't miss you one bit if you left, so please, just piss off! Why are you so clingy, like some obsessive male lead from a romance novel!
Ethan, who had been observing the situation from the watchtower, came down to report.
“It’s no good. There are too many monsters. I think their own noises are drowning out the bells.”
It seemed the bells were only helpful when there were fewer monsters. Damn.
I collapsed onto the ground in despair.
Right. There was no way it would be this easy.
* * *
Having no other choice, I cleanly gave up on the bell strategy.
Ethan and I climbed up to the watchtower together to observe our surroundings and come up with a plan.
We spent the entire day on the roof, monitoring the monsters’ movements.
Grrrr—
Grk, grk.
What on earth was that unidentifiable sound? The bizarre noise, like something scraping the air, was eerie enough to make the hair on my arms stand on end.
Monsters with long snouts like anteaters were pressed right up against the outer wall, constantly sniffing.
I couldn’t help but be on edge, feeling as though they might leap over the wall and into Happy House at any moment. I hadn’t heard of any monsters with exceptional jumping abilities so far, but you never knew.
Occasionally, depending on their physical state before infection, a monster of incredible size or one with unnaturally high speed could be born.
Yes, this was a fact I already knew.
But the actual birth of such a monster was extremely rare. Most monsters were mindless brutes that could do nothing but walk or run forward.
Scraape—
Now there was even a monster pressed against the stone wall, senselessly clawing at it.
Of course, the wall wasn't going to collapse that easily. I had prepared for the worst-case scenario by having it built three layers thick. It was also about three meters high. I’d had it reinforced after being shocked by a two-meter-tall monster I’d seen before the apocalypse.
Honestly, I hadn't thought all this work could be completed in such a short time.
‘The power of money, indeed.’
As I was observing the area around the wall with a pair of opera glasses, a piercing gaze landed on the side of my face.
Ethan, who had been resting his chin on his hand, was staring at me with his head tilted. He then tapped the opera glasses with his finger.
I lowered the opera glasses and looked at Ethan.
“Where on earth did you get something like this?”
Ethan asked me in a tone one might use for a strange creature. I looked down at the opera glasses he was pointing at.
Even before the apocalypse, he was always like this whenever he came to Happy House. He was so curious, he’d question everything I did.
‘To be fair, I suppose it does look a bit strange.’
But I couldn't very well tell him the truth: ‘Opera glasses are a must-have in a monster apocalypse, so I prepared them.’
“Where else? I bought them to go to the opera.”
Ethan’s sharp eyes narrowed as he looked at me.
“There is no opera house in Brunel.”
“There’s one in Kintne.”
“There isn’t one there, either.”
“I’m pretty sure there is.”
“I’m sure.”
“Then the town next to it…?”
I didn't know the name of the town next to Kintne, but whatever, the town next to it.
My stubborn response succeeded in shutting him up.
Ethan shot me a fed-up look. I feigned ignorance and pretended to survey the town through the opera glasses.